CHAPTER 1: BETRAYAL AND SCANDAL
The music from the runway show was pounding through the walls. It was like my heart was beating as fast. I could hear the crowd cheering. There were two thousand people there all waiting to see me. In one and a half minutes the lights would go down. In two minutes I would walk out on that runway.
I reached for the door handle to my dressing room.. It was locked. From the inside.
"Julian?" I called out.. There was no answer. Just some muffled noises. It sounded like someone was moving around there.. Then I heard a low laugh. A laugh I knew well.
I used the key the venue manager had given me that morning. The door swung open.. That is when I saw him. Julian was sitting on the couch putting on his belt. He was not even wearing a shirt. And beside him wearing the robe I had left on the door was my Elena.
Elena smiled at me. "You are early " she said.
My hand was still on the door. I was trying to make sense of what I was seeing.. It just did not add up. Not here. Not tonight. Not Julian, who had kissed me a few hours ago and told me I was going to be amazing on that runway.
"Get out " I said. My voice sounded strange. Like it was coming from someone.
"No " Julian said. He stood up. Started buttoning his shirt. "You are going to sit down Aria.. You are going to listen to me."
"I have to go on stage in one and a half minutes—" I started to say.
"You are not going on stage " Julian said.
Elena laughed. It was not a nice laugh. "God she still does not get it " she said.
I looked at Elena. Her hair was messy. Her lipstick was smudged. This was not an accident. This was all planned.
"What did you do?" I asked.
Julian walked over to the door. Locked it behind me. The sound of the lock made me feel cold.
"The story goes live in eight minutes " he said. "There are photographs. There are witnesses.. There is a very good story about you and your relationships with some very important clients."
"That is not true " I said. "You know that is not true."
"It does not matter " Julian said. He pulled out a folder. Held it out to me. "Your contracts are cancelled the moment the story breaks. The sponsors can stop working with you if you do something. You will be sued for every campaign you have done in the year and a half unless you sign this paper.. There are also divorce papers in here."
I did not take the folder. "You are lying " I said.
"I am protecting the agency " Julian said. "You were only valuable because of your image, Aria. The moment your image becomes a problem you become a problem. I can not afford you anymore."
"We are married " I said.
"We were useful to each other " Julian said. "That is now."
Elena stood up. She let her robe slip a little. "He was always mine " she said. "You just did not want to see it."
"How long?" I asked. My voice was shaking. I hated that my voice was shaking.
"Does it matter?" Julian asked. He opened the folder. Pulled out a pen. "Sign the papers. Take the money.. Walk away quietly. If you make a scene I will make sure you never work again."
"People know me—" I started to say.
"People know your face " Julian said. "They do not know you. Sign the papers, Aria. Do not make this worse than it already is."
The room felt like it was falling apart. The walls, the lights, the sound of my heart beating. I looked down at the papers. The divorce papers. The paper that said I could not talk about what happened.
"You planned this " I whispered. "The show. The timing. You wanted me to be at the top so my fall would be—"
"Spectacular?" Julian said. He smiled. It was the smile he gave me when he proposed to me. "You will be famous for weeks. Just not in the way you thought."
My hands were shaking. I took the pen.
"That is my girl " Elena said.
I signed the papers. Every page. My name over and over until it did not look like my name anymore.
Julian took the folder. "You are fired from the agency " he said. "Effective immediately. Security will take you out through the door. Try to avoid the cameras."
"Where am I supposed to go?" I asked.
"That is not my problem " Julian said. He looked at his watch. "You have four minutes before the story breaks. I would suggest you leave now."
Elena was already fixing her hair. "I am opening the show now " she said. "They will say it was a last-minute change. Very dramatic."
I. Walked towards the door. My legs did not feel like my own.
"Aria " Julian said.
I stopped. I did not turn around.
"You were beautiful " Julian said. His voice was almost kind. "I will give you that."
---
The rain hit me like a slap in the face.
I walked four blocks in a dress and high heels that were not made for walking on the street. My phone was ringing. I threw it away. Somewhere behind me I could hear people running. Probably. Fans who had recognized me even though I was wet and messy.
I pushed open the door I found.
The bar was dark. It was a change from the bright lights outside. No one looked up when I walked in. No one recognized me.
I sat down at the end of the bar. Put my head in my hands.
"You look like you need this more than I do " a voice said.
A glass of whiskey slid across the bar. It was expensive.. It was just what I needed.
I looked up.
The man sitting a seats away was watching me. He did not look sorry for me. He did not look curious. He just looked at me.
"I do not know you " I said.
"Good " he said. "Then I do not know you either."
I picked up the glass. Drank. The whiskey burned my throat.
" night?" he asked.
"The worst " I said.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
"No " I said.
He nodded. He turned back to his drink. He gave me space.
I looked at him in the mirror behind the bar. He had hair. A strong jaw. A scar on his cheek. He was wearing a suit but it looked like armor. He was sitting still. Like he was always ready to move.
"Do you believe in decisions?" I asked.
"I believe in ones " he said.
"What if they're the same thing?" I asked.
"Then you make them anyway " he said.
I finished the whiskey. I put the glass down. "I do not want to go out there " I said.
"Then do not " he said.
"I do not have else to go " I said.
He was quiet for a moment. Then he stood up. He pulled out some money. Left it on the bar. He held out his hand.
"One night " he said. "No names. No questions. No tomorrow."
I looked at his hand. I looked at his face. I looked at the door behind me that led back to the cameras and the scandal and the mess I had made.
I took his hand.
---
I woke up to grey light and an empty bed.
He was gone. No note. No phone number. No proof he had even been there except for the mark on the pillow beside me and the hotel key on the nightstand that was not mine.
I sat up slowly. My dress was on the floor. My life was a mess.. Somewhere, in the city the story Julian had planted was already spreading like a disease I could not cure.
I stood up. I got dressed. I walked out into a world that had already decided who I was.
Six weeks later in a bathroom Aria Morriston stared at two blue lines and understood that the night she had lost everything had also given her the one thing no one could take.
I was pregnant.
The father was a man whose name I did not even know.